The Cinnabar Island Experiments
by IcyKali
Summary: What secrets does the Pokemon Mansion hold, and what do Blaine and Mr. Fuji have to do with that disturbing place? A pokemon creepypasta, written to be similar to the tone of the games.
For a long time, I thought that my favorite Gym Leader in Pokemon was Blaine. His trivia-themed Gym was funny and creative, and I appreciated his dedication in building a new Gym in the Seafoam Islands after Cinnabar Island was destroyed. I didn't even mind it when Blaine defeated me at the PWT (well, maybe I minded a little). But little did I know, I would one day experience something that would never let me look at Blaine the same way again.

It had been such a long time since I'd played LeafGreen. Though my first handheld was the original DS (sorry Gen 1 fans) I still made sure to play the Emerald and LeafGreen versions. I loved both of these games, but once ORAS came out I never really looked back at Emerald. Still, ORAS couldn't give me everything. Deep in my heart, I craved Kanto nostalgia. So when I got bored of Masuda breeding in AS, I took a break and picked up my old DS and my LeafGreen cart to start a new Kanto adventure.

Nostalgia it was. Although I thought I didn't remember much of the game, again and again I'd have a flash of memory. I remember fighting my Rival in Pokemon Tower! I remember getting a Lapras from that scientist! And so on. It was a powerful feeling. Unfortunately, when I got to Cinnabar Island, I realized I had completely forgotten that the Gym was locked. How did I get in before? Confused, I talked to a woman on the island. She said a friend of Blaine's used to live in the Mansion, and that there might be a key there.

Oh, that's right, I thought. The key is on the bottom floor of the mansion. I trudged inside, and was struck by the surprisingly creepy mechanical-sounding music. Why wasn't this regarded as more disturbing than Lavender Town's theme? I wondered.

As I went through the Mansion, I made sure to reread the journal entries regarding Mew. I loved the Pokemon games for their attention to detail. I thought it was very amusing that these games mention Mew being discovered in Guyana, when later games don't have many references to locations in the real world. I also loved the fact that the Dr. Fuji, the researcher who founded the Lab, might be the kind old Mr. Fuji of Lavender Town (if Blaine had a photo of himself and Mr. Fuji hanging up in his Gym, then Mr. Fuji could've been Blaine's friend who lived in the Mansion). I loved how it gave these games more depth than I remembered. How little I knew then...

After several frustrating minutes of encountering Koffing and Vulpix, pressing Mew-shaped switches, and fighting Burglars and Scientists, I finally found the basement room of the Mansion that contained the Secret Key. I walked up to the table it was on and picked it up. I was so excited to fight Blaine, that I immediately left the Mansion to go battle him. Sadly, the battle was uneventful. Lapras easily defeated most of his pokemon, and my other pokemon took out Arcanine. After the battle, I checked the Bulbapedia page on Pokemon Mansion to see if there was anything I had missed. I noticed that there were Rare Candies I had completely forgotten! Annoyed, I went back to duplicate my, or Red's, long trek to the basement.

When I reached the basement where I had found the Secret Key, I noticed that something was wrong. In the upper left corner of the room, there was a cracked tile. It looked like the cracked tiles from the Sky Pillar in Emerald. I thought that this floor was the basement floor, so where could that tile lead? Outside the Mansion, maybe? Hoping for a shortcut or for a secret room, I made Red step on the tile.  
Red fell down into the black void.

When the new area loaded, Red appeared in a room that looked like the basement of the Mansion, but the tileset seemed... more dim. Though I had turned down my DS's speakers, I noticed that something seemed to be wrong with the music. It was slower, and sounded even more like mechanical screeching. I felt surprised, but then I realized something: Wait, later Pokemon games play the music more slowly on the bottom floors of caves, right? I guess this is normal. This floor also seemed rather claustrophobic. There were walls on either side of Red, like this area was just a long hallway. Ready to grab the Rare Candy that was sure to be at the end of this hall, I made Red start walking.

Suddenly, a battle started. I jumped a little—I hadn't encountered a pokemon in while. It was a Ditto. Excited, I sent out my weakest Pokemon, a Porygon, whittled down Ditto's HP and caught it. This reminded me of the rumor that Ditto was a failed clone of Mew. That rumor is one of the few Pokemon theories that is based on facts, in my opinion. Silly stories about Gengar and Clefable are one thing, but the evidence of Mew's and Ditto's weight, colors, moveset, plus Ditto's appearance in Cerulean Cave had certainly convinced me.

Red took a few more steps before I stopped him in his tracks. Had the room just gotten darker, or had I just imagined it? As I looked at the screen more closely, I noticed that the left wall had a break in it. A door! I thought. Red walked inside, and I saw a table with an open book and an Item Ball lying on it. I thought I had read all the research journals already, so I quickly inspected the book.

"Experiment number four: Mew failed to give birth to a fully-formed clone once again. There must be an error in the the gene-splicing process. We prepared to destroy the failed experiment, but it has disappeared?"

Failed experiment? What failed experiment? I thought. Mewtwo was the experiment that lost control, so this must be a different one. I guessed that Dr. Fuji, who I assumed was the author of the journals, was talking about Ditto. I had Red pick up the item on the table. It was called a Secret Keycard. But I had already used the Secret Key that opens Blaine's Gym, so this was odd to say the least. I checked the bag. Its description read simply, "What could this open?" which was unhelpful. I made Red move along and continue down the hall.

Eventually, I came upon a door (on the right side of the hall this time). Inside the room was another table with a an open journal on top of it. On the wall of the room was a photograph. The journal read:

"I'm having second thoughts. Every failed experiment has an aggressive nature and when caught only disobeys. Will my work really help to protect everyone?  
In any case, I've named the gene that is causing the emotional disorder apparent in the clones the Berserk Gene. I am hoping to isolate it."

Ditto certainly didn't have an aggressive nature. I checked the summary of the Ditto I had just caught, and it looked completely normal. I changed my mind, and decided that Dr. Fuji must have meant Mewtwo... but he had mentioned "experiments" plural... feeling uncomfortable, I had Red check the picture: "It's a photo of Blaine, Mr. Fuji, and scientists you don't recognize." So, this confirmed that Mr. Fuji and Dr. Fuji were one and the same. Pokemon Origins wasn't the first to confirm this after all. I made Red walk out of the room, and continued on my way.

Finally, Red reached the end of the corridor. There was a locked door at the end, and I could see that there was a small room behind it. When Red interacted with the door, he opened it with the Secret Keycard. A little nervous now, I made him walk inside.

A battle started! The screen went dark for a second, and then a nightmarish pokemon emerged. It had the cry of Mew, but distorted and cut short. If you know the original, Red and Green sprite Mew, it looked like that but with two faces, with a single elongated eye in between. One of its mouths was open, like it was howling. It's battle entrance animation was barely an animation—only its tail moved, and even then, just barely. ? was its name.

I sent out Lapras. I hoped that I could defeat the ? quickly, because even on the small DS screen, I could tell it was in pain. But when I selected Surf, it said Lapras was too scared to move, as if it were fighting a Ghost without the Silph Scope. ? tried to use Mega Punch, but the message "But it failed" appeared. At a stalemate, I ran away. I got away safely, but when the battle ended, ? had not gone away. It was still on the overworld, moving towards Red. I made Red move farther into the room, ? pulling itself across the floor, unable to float like the real Mew.

In the back of the room were five test tubes, the central one being the largest. It was broken, and what I assumed to be bits of glass littered the floor. The room was covered in dark stains. I wanted to look at the broken tube, but before I could get the chance, I heard two more strangled Mew-like cries. From the left and right sides of the screen, two more ? started lumbering towards Red. Each one was unique—one had four arms, and the other had a leg hanging out of a growth on its back. Without any input from me, Red looked around the room wildly before slowly backing away towards the broken test tube. The ? advanced on him.

Another cry pierced the room—a familiar one. A Rapidash leaped onscreen, and the ? scattered, moving as fast as they could to whatever dank hiding places they had crawled out of. A text box popped up.

"Good job, Rapidash! But don't flash-fry our trainer!"

Rapidash disappeared in a flash of light. Even before he walked into my field of view, I knew who my "savior" was. Blaine walked up to Red slowly, reluctantly? He stood in front of him for a few seconds, not saying a thing. Eventually, he broke the silence.

"...Heard from the Gym Guide that you were gonna go back in here to hunt for rare items."

Another pregnant pause. Blaine was lucky that I couldn't make Red curse him the way I longed to.

"So, you've found me out. I can't hide it. I did this. It was all me. I was a famous scientist in my younger days, you see, and I thought I could help—"

Another pause.

"What?! What do you mean, I wasn't the one in charge?

Oh. The photos and the journals."

Blaine fidgeted.

"Listen kid, I'm sorry you had to see this. Sorry about... everything. I know I can't take this all back, but I can at least tell you why we did it.

You know Lt. Surge fought in the war, right? He was lucky. We lost a lot of great trainers back then. But things aren't great now, either. Wars like that are taking place all over the world, and it's only a matter of time before we have to get involved in one. You traveled a long way to challenge me, so I'm sure you've seen Team Rocket grunts roaming around. Greedy people like that don't just work here, kid. Gangs like that are popping up everywhere now, taking advantage of this awful economy.

Fuji, he wanted to make sure all the good people in Kanto, even the ones who aren't trainers could protect themselves. And Mew was definitely a kind but powerful pokemon, so it seemed perfect. But Fuji only found one  
of them, you understand?"

Pause. By this point, I was scowling and gripping the DS too tightly.

"Hindsight's 20/20. I know it looks terrible now, but we weren't thinking. We were as bad as Team Rocket...

But now I've given refuge to former crooks who want to do better, and I've dedicated my life to helping trainers like you achieve their dreams, hey! I'm a better man! Will you forgive me?  
We can keep this a secret just between us."

The first prompt in a long time appeared. YES or NO, it said simply. I'll be the first to admit that I take fiction too seriously. I'm the kind of person who cries at the ends of sad novels. By now, by stomach was hurting from stress. I thought about my, or Red's, moral dilemma. Sure, Blaine was a great Gym Leader, and he'd changed, but he knew the consequences that people like him had to face, right? Complicating things further, Red was just a child, and Blaine was an adult.

I selected NO.

"...That was wrong of me to ask of you. I get it. But you see how I'm helping people just like you, right? Forgive but don't forget, right? I'll promise to do better. You don't what what'll happen to me otherwise."

Another prompt. I selected NO once again. Now I was sure Blaine knew what he was getting into from the beginning. Blaine fidgeted again, getting riled up.

"Okay, forget about me, then! You saw what a great guy Fuji is in Lavender Town, didn't you? All he does is try to make up for what he did!

Please, please, forget he was ever a part of this."

I had made my choice.

Blaine turned and ran, and Red just stayed still. I was probably just projecting, but he looked determined. I took an Escape Rope I had bought and left the Mansion behind. I didn't want to stay in that terrible place for another second. I knew it would remain burned into my memory no matter what. I had Red run to the Gym, and I had him talk to the Gym Guide.

"Hey, champ-in-the-making! Something weird just happened! Our Gym Leader was in a big rush and made a phone call, and then he ran right out again! Nobody knows where he went."

So he wasn't going to wait for Red to spill his secrets. On a hunch, I used Fly to get to Lavender Town. Inside the Volunteer House, Mr. Fuji was nowhere to be seen, just as I expected. I had Red speak to the little girl.

"Mr. Fuji got a phone call from a friend, and after that he told us he had to go on a trip. I hope he comes back soon!"

I realized that these people would never know what really happened to Mr. Fuji. He would never come back, and the Lavender Volunteer House would have no caretaker. It hit me—what would happen once the Radio Tower was built? Would anyone even consider the graves? Would anyone even care about these abandoned pokemon? And Blaine, who would take his place? What would happen when the other Gym Leaders heard he was gone? What about when Cinnabar Island's volcano would erupt? Would another Gym Leader even bother to set up a new Gym? I knew it was just a children's video game, but I didn't want to think about any of this. My eyes hurt, and I didn't want to keep playing. I shut off the DS.

A few days later, I started LeafGreen again. To my surprise, Red was standing in front of Blaine's Gym still. The last time I had saved, it was before I ventured back into the Mansion at all! I felt so relieved! I checked the Cinnabar Gym, and there was Blaine as usual. I went back outside, and looked at the Pokemon Mansion. I did not go back inside.

You might not believe my story. I know I wouldn't. But if you ever see a single cracked tile in the Pokemon Mansion, if you ever discover the truth for yourself, make sure you make the right decision. Hindsight is 20/20, after all.


End file.
